Beware: Netflix Can Announce What You Watch to the World

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ReadWrite explains…

According to the new law, companies have to ask only once. You can opt out, but if you don’t, say goodbye to the rights to your video data for two full years. As per the change, Netflix will introduce new social features that basically link users’ Netflix and Facebook accounts and share their viewing history with friends. Netflix was previously unable to do this in the U.S. by the 25-year-old Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), which banned the sharing of personal data for anything but law enforcement purposes (even now, Hulu remains in court for previously sharing viewers’ info).

According to another article on the subject, the new law will allow people to opt out at any point, including on a case-by-case basis. When the Netflix features are implemented, we’ll be looking for how to do that and will share the info.

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